STUPID FACEBOOK

[john455]

My wife loves those stupid facebook games and got a BAD virus on my laptop clicking on something that popped up while playing one last night, luckily Norton caught it instantly, but I had to reset my laptop back to factory setting to get rid of it. So if someone in your house plays those games be careful. Well time to go download a years worth of updates. 

[vontar]

Doesn't sound like Norton did a good job of protecting it since you ended up having to reset it anyways.

 

Well, at least it spotted it and warned you so you could take corrective steps.

[john455]

yeah it got into the laptop, Norton locked it down with a big red screen and advised a reset, I hadn't taken time to set up a reset on this thing so it had to go all the way back to factory, lesson learned.

[tennesseetiger]

Doesn't sound like Norton did a good job of protecting it since you ended up having to reset it anyways.

 

Well, at least it spotted it and warned you so you could take corrective steps.

Norton is by FAR one of the worst Anti-virus companies on the planet...way better options out there. Ever since Symantec bought Norton from the creator it has gone down hill.

Love,

A Systems Engineer

Edited January 23, 2015 by tennesseetiger

[TripleDigitRide]

I've been extremely satisfied with Trend Micro. It has served me well for the last several years.

[btq96r]

Norton is by FAR one of the worst Anti-virus companies on the planet...way better options out there. Ever since Symantec bought Norton from the creator it has gone down hill.

Love,

A Systems Engineer

Some truth right here. Norton is just one giant advertisement for itself with security as a secondary thought. If I had to wipe a drive, I wouldn't say the antivirus did its job.

I use Avast, and while far from the be all, end all, it's kept my systems free of infection all the while I surf sites all over the spectrum.

[Caster]

I will never understand the dynamic of Facebook and places like it especially as it relates to young people.

I spent the bulk of my youth trying to PREVENT anyone from knowing what I was up to. Now they're telling every move they make and wonder why they stay in trouble all the time.

[NoBanStan]

yeah it got into the laptop, Norton locked it down with a big red screen and advised a reset, I hadn't taken time to set up a reset on this thing so it had to go all the way back to factory, lesson learned.

 

Norton advised a reset? As in a system restore or reformat? Odd either way.

 

Honestly, you're probably better off just factory restoring anyways. There's no telling what kind of breadcrumbs an infection can leave behind.

 

-PSA-

 

You see, the thing is, Antiviruses are a lot like doctors. Every time a new infection appears, people will catch it until they come up with a fix. It also doesn't help if the doctor is behind on his education (I.E. you're behind on updates). Granted that most of them have "patterns" they look for and most of them know how to look for suspicious behavior, but it's not foolproof. The idea is to blanket catch as MUCH as possible and patch in the rest over time.

 

Install any antivirus and you'll find they will ALL allow SOMETHING to get in. Oh, and don't think that means you need to install more than one.. that's a horrible idea :)

 

A common misconception is that you have to "download" an infection. Or "click" something. That's not the case at all. I often hear "I didn't download anything!". Yes you did! In fact, everything you view on the internet is downloaded to your computer! Did you know that even reputable websites can serve up an infection via advertising? I've seen MSN do it. 

 

Quick scenario:  MSN (yes I know.. who goes there) has advertising. When you visit the site, the page is served up to you and they pull an advert from vendor X. Unbeknownst to MSN, vendor X has been compromised, so the add that MSN pulls serves you up a nice slice of malware pie. Suddenly you've got popups telling you that "Windows" has detected that you are infected and you need to download superspyblasterwebremover44pewpew! So it looks like MSN just gave you an infection. That's commonly referred to as a Drive By.

 

TL;DR - no antivirus is foolproof, but the idea is.... do you go into the storm wearing a raincoat and risk your shoes getting wet? Or do you just go without one and hope you don't get soaked.

[NoBanStan]

I've been extremely satisfied with Trend Micro. It has served me well for the last several years.

 

I'm a Trend fan as well. I've administrated Officescan servers for years. As long as you stay on top of keeping it current, it does the job. And, it's a lightweight client....

[10-Ring]

I will never understand the dynamic of Facebook and places like it especially as it relates to young people.

I spent the bulk of my youth trying to PREVENT anyone from knowing what I was up to. Now they're telling every move they make and wonder why they stay in trouble all the time.

I can see the usefulness of Facebook, the problem is some people have no discretion about what they post for the world to see.  I have to say that it is kind of funny watching these idiots get themselves into trouble.  A friend of mine had an employee who he was friends with on Facebook, she called in sick for three days and posted pictures of herself partying it up at the beach the whole time.  Surprisingly she was shocked when she didn't have a job upon her return.

[NoBanStan]

I can see the usefulness of Facebook, the problem is some people have no discretion about what they post for the world to see.  I have to say that it is kind of funny watching these idiots get themselves into trouble.  A friend of mine had an employee who he was friends with on Facebook, she called in sick for three days and posted pictures of herself partying it up at the beach the whole time.  Surprisingly she was shocked when she didn't have a job upon her return.

 

My personal favorites are the out of state check-ins. My wife still uses it and we see her friends posting that they are at the beach currently. I've been tempted to go to their house and take a mock picture of me with a crowbar at their back door, but it would be my luck some turd would break in and then I would get the blame.

[K191145]

I will never understand the dynamic of Facebook and places like it especially as it relates to young people.

I spent the bulk of my youth trying to PREVENT anyone from knowing what I was up to. Now they're telling every move they make and wonder why they stay in trouble all the time.

 

I see it all the time. HEY, look at me on the beach in Florida, there's nobody at my house, my friend feeds my dog at 2pm so come after that and take everything you can, BTW, I don't have a friends only privacy setting on Facebook so everyone can read my wall and know everything I do.

[Sam1]

Norton is by FAR one of the worst Anti-virus companies on the planet...way better options out there. Ever since Symantec bought Norton from the creator it has gone down hill.

Love,

A Systems Engineer

 

Norton is THE worst anti-virus ever created.

 

 

 

TL;DR - no antivirus is foolproof, but the idea is.... do you go into the storm wearing a raincoat and risk your shoes getting wet? Or do you just go without one and hope you don't get soaked.

 

I use a Mac and my shoes never get wet :)

[TripleGGG]

ESET has been working great for me. I left Norton years ago.

[NextExit]

Norton is THE worst anti-virus ever created.

 

 

 

I use a Mac and my shoes never get wet :)

Mac or Linux... problem solved :up:

[tnguy]

Quick scenario:  MSN (yes I know.. who goes there) has advertising. When you visit the site, the page is served up to you and they pull an advert from vendor X. Unbeknownst to MSN, vendor X has been compromised, so the add that MSN pulls serves you up a nice slice of malware pie. Suddenly you've got popups telling you that "Windows" has detected that you are infected and you need to download superspyblasterwebremover44pewpew! So it looks like MSN just gave you an infection. That's commonly referred to as a Drive By.

 

 

 

Yet another reason to use adblock and friends.

[NoBanStan]

Yet another reason to use adblock and friends.

 

I run adblock plus and disconnect.me

 

I also still like the MVPS host file http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

[john455]

Norton advised a reset? As in a system restore or reformat? Odd either way.

 

Honestly, you're probably better off just factory restoring anyways. There's no telling what kind of breadcrumbs an infection can leave behind.

 

-PSA-

 

You see, the thing is, Antiviruses are a lot like doctors. Every time a new infection appears, people will catch it until they come up with a fix. It also doesn't help if the doctor is behind on his education (I.E. you're behind on updates). Granted that most of them have "patterns" they look for and most of them know how to look for suspicious behavior, but it's not foolproof. The idea is to blanket catch as MUCH as possible and patch in the rest over time.

 

Install any antivirus and you'll find they will ALL allow SOMETHING to get in. Oh, and don't think that means you need to install more than one.. that's a horrible idea :)

 

A common misconception is that you have to "download" an infection. Or "click" something. That's not the case at all. I often hear "I didn't download anything!". Yes you did! In fact, everything you view on the internet is downloaded to your computer! Did you know that even reputable websites can serve up an infection via advertising? I've seen MSN do it. 

 

Quick scenario:  MSN (yes I know.. who goes there) has advertising. When you visit the site, the page is served up to you and they pull an advert from vendor X. Unbeknownst to MSN, vendor X has been compromised, so the add that MSN pulls serves you up a nice slice of malware pie. Suddenly you've got popups telling you that "Windows" has detected that you are infected and you need to download superspyblasterwebremover44pewpew! So it looks like MSN just gave you an infection. That's commonly referred to as a Drive By.

 

TL;DR - no antivirus is foolproof, but the idea is.... do you go into the storm wearing a raincoat and risk your shoes getting wet? Or do you just go without one and hope you don't get soaked.

Actually it didn't ADVISE a reset, there was a bright red screen with the Norton symbol and a system reset was the only option it offered, wouldn't let me do anything but a reset. 

[analog_kidd]

I run adblock plus and disconnect.me

 

I also still like the MVPS host file http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

 

I use the hosts file method too, and never have an issue with malware. Plus it make my browser experience much nicer as it hides a lot of the more annoying ads.

[BigK]

I use a Mac and my shoes never get wet :)

If enough people liked Macs for them to have a respectable share of the market, it might be worthwhile for more scumbag virus writers to attack that OS. It's not that Mac users are immune, just too small of a target to bother with. In 2012 600K Mac users (probably a large percentage of them, LOL) were hit with "Flashback" . Before that even Linux got hit with koobface and BadBunny.

It's a numbers game from both directions. Virus writers won't "waste" their time to hit small chunks of people like the Mac community. Likewise, to make Windows as secure as Linux would make the user experience less desirable and anger too many people. Edited January 26, 2015 by BigK

[bersaguy]

I  used Norton back about 12 years ago and it let a worm in my computer. When I got it back from computer repair service It had AVG on it. I told my buddy when I dropped it off to be fixed to down load what ever virus protection service he uses at his shop and on his computers. I have been using AVG ever since with zero issues. It does from time to time lock down my computer when it traps a Bug coming in but once I follow the instructions in the lock down screen I am up and running again in less than 10 minutes with zero programs effected. I pay $64.00 a year for it and worth every dime of it..................jmho

[NextExit]

You're right BigK, most people don't like Linux because it requires some work.  Linux doesn't do much til you tell it to.  And some things have to be run thru terminal.  I've used Mac for 5 years and Linux about 12 years.  I do have one laptop with XP on it as that's required to run my Volvo diagnostic software.

[tnguy]

To be fair, Windows security has come a long way. Probably the best thing you can do is not use and administrator account for your day-to-day stuff, especially if you're less-knowledgeable.

[BigK]

I don't even own a computer nowadays. I use one every day at work, but at home I just use a tablet. All I do is surf the web, check email, and read TGO anyway.

[tennesseetiger]

Mac or Linux... problem solved :up:

Eh...the virus market for the macs has increased quite a bit due to the amount of people using them. Its not as bad as the Microsoft virus market obviously but its getting worse.